The competitive eater also broke his own world record by eating 83 glazes.
Hot dog: Joey Chestnut is the winner again! On Monday, Chestnut won a hot dog eating contest against Takeru Kobayashi, eating 83 hot dogs and buns, breaking the previous world record of 76. He beat Kobayashi, who only ate 66 pieces of the fudge.
The “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef” contest, which aired on Netflix and took place at HyperX Arena at Luxor in Las Vegas, marked the first time the two competitors faced each other in a hot dog eating contest in 15 years.
Kobayashi won the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest six times in the early 2000s, but has not competed since 2009 because he refused to sign an exclusive deal with the contest's organizer, Major League Eating. Since then, Chestnut has dominated the hot dog eating business, winning the contest every year between 2007 and 2023, except for 2015, when he lost to Matt Stoney.
“Throughout my years of competitive eating, Kobayashi has been my fiercest competitor,” Chestnut said in a statement ahead of the Unfinished Beef competition. “Competing against him has pushed me to be even better. I know the fans have been waiting a long time for another chapter of our competition and I can’t wait for our massive showdown live on Netflix! It’s time to give the people what they want!”
The confrontation also comes several months after Chestnut was controversially banned from this year's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, which sells plant-based hot dogs.
The organization's statement also acknowledged the then-unannounced Netflix rematch with Kobayashi: “MLE and Nathan's have made significant efforts in recent months to accommodate Joey and his management team, agreeing to an appearance fee and allowing Joey to compete in a non-branded hot dog eating contest on Labor Day. However, it appears that Joey and his managers have prioritized a new partnership with a different hot dog brand over our long-standing relationship.”
